Winners & Losers

Shinhan Bank

, a leading Korean financial institution, topped Korean banks in customer evaluations, Tuesday.

The Korea Finance Consumer Federation (KFCF), an organization established to secure financial consumers’ rights, released ranking information on Korean banks. Scores are evaluated on a 100-point scale and Shinhan ranked first with 94.5 points. Citibank and Daegu Bank followed with 85.7 points and 83.6 points, respectively.

It is the first time a consumers’ organization has released such ranking information from a consumers’ point of view. The recent KFCF evaluation was based on last year’s capital adequacy ratio, liquidity ratio, the number of complaints, total assets and net profit. Opinions from 7,323 financial consumers were also included.

Samsung Construction and Trade

, a construction and trade arm of the Samsung Group, announced Thursday that both its operating profit and net profit dropped in the first quarter.

Samsung C&T’s operating profit stood at 67.59 billion won ($60.9 million) and the quarterly net profit was 60.19 billion won, down 28 percent and 53.9 percent, respectively, compared to the same period a year earlier.

The company’s trade sector explained that falling prices of raw materials including petrochemicals and steel products during the global economic recession brought down its profit margin. Its operating profit declined 47.5 percent on year-end.

Similarly, the construction sector recorded a 25.1 percent decline in operating profit during the same period, amid recent earning shocks from Korean builders including GS E&C and Samsung Engineering. Samsung C&T predicted the profit will be normalized starting the second quarter when its overseas construction projects begin.